If you don't plan to winter your honeybees, you should cage your queen(s). This will ensure you won't have eggs and larva in your honey when you extract honey. It will take approximately 24 days for all the brood to hatch out of the honeycomb. Keeping the queen alive helps the colony to continue to produce honey from fall nectar and decreases swarming and/or queen rearing. Keep doing hive checks every ten days to prevent colonies from creating new queens.
After you take all the honey frames and extract them, give all the sticky frames back to the bees to be cleaned up for about a week. Storing equipment that is clean, without dead brood or sticky frames make starting subsequent seasons much better.
Once equipment is clean, you can either winter the bees or shop vacuum and recycle them in a compost or garden bed. Their soft organs become part of a rich garden soil while their exoskeletons become a lightweight, organic vermiculite that aerates the soil.
All equipment should be stacked upon a bottom board with a queen excluder between the bottom board and the bottom brood box. This will keep rodents from eating the honeycomb and building nests inside the boxes during winter months. I always store my equipment outdoors, under the eaves of my house. This prevents mold and mildew on the honeycomb frames.
If you wish to winter colonies, you must control several variables:
1) Space - Reduce the colony down to one brood box. This will help them stay warmer as they cluster in winter months.
2) Food - Remove all honey as this is too nutrient rich, causing compacted bowels. Feed 2:1 ratio sugar to water so the bees can store in honeycomb cells for winter. The best way I've found is to use an inverted bucket on the outside of a telescoping cover with a one inch hole in the middle of the lid.
https://www.betterbee.com/feeders/fp0-one-gallon-feeder-pail.asp?mkwid=&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&pdv=c&gclid=CjwKCAjw_aemBhBLEiwAT98FMpofwavooz6Ib7N_KyS7Kq4jQRQiDMn2Y7pfyup4onpHilBMSEVdJhoCaSsQAvD_BwE
A sugar candy board will be added above the brood box later in October. Sugar candy board is made with granulated sugar, vinegar and water.
3) Treat for mites using oxalic acid (wood bleach). This is done using a car battery and an oxalic acid vaporizer tool:
https://www.amazon.com/AUNMAS-Vaporizer-Evaporator-Beekeeping-Fumigation/dp/B082D8F1VG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3NWUBV2NRSBUO&keywords=oxalic+acid+fumigation+tool&qid=1691044838&sprefix=occelic+acid+f4umigation+tool%2Caps%2C268&sr=8-3
This should be done every two weeks for a total of three treatments.
4) About the middle of October in Fairbanks, Alaska, it's time to move colonies into a bee shed that is super insulated with the following:
*A heat source that keeps temperatures between 35* and 38*:
https://www.amazon.com/Dreo-Radiator-Electric-Protection-Thermostat/dp/B096FQYFBJ/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=UVER9YYIIVA3&keywords=oil+drip+electric+heater&qid=1691045593&sprefix=oil+drip+electric+heate%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-2-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
*Temperature monitoring: https://physitemp.com/electrotherms_p224
* Humidity: Purchase several DryRid buckets from a local hardware store and hang or place in the wintering shed. Other ways to absorb moisture are charcoal or wood shavings above each brood chamber.
* Govee Temperature and Humidity monitor that sets on the candy board:
https://us.govee.com/products/wi-fi-temperature-humidity-sensor?currency=USD&variant=37592920686777&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CjwKCAjw_aemBhBLEiwAT98FMkvOjEoba5fnYh_pGk4IBzoixCyx53bXMNs5FkcPrakBBxMPqDWmmBoCktQQAvD_BwE
*Elevation - One of the variables we found recently that helps with wintering success is elevation. Colonies stored at higher elevations are able to be moved out of wintering sheds in March for cleansing flights. This is the final step of wintering is allowing bees to complete cleansing flights before they succumb to Nosema or other diseases.
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